Shenmue 3 wraps up crowdfunding with $7.1 million in tow

Image via Shenmue 3 Kickstarter

Three years after it began, crowdfunding for the highly-anticipated Shenmue 3 has finally closed. After the initial Kickstarter raised $6.3 million in 2015, Yu Suzuki (the mind behind Shenmue) opted to re-open the Kickstarter and accept payments via Paypal. This garnered an additional $850,000, bringing the crowdfunding total to about $7.17 million.

Crowdfunding for Shenmue 3 has finally come to a close more than three years after it started, raising a total of US $7,179,510 given by over 81,000 backers.

Yu Suzuki, the mind behind the Shenmue franchise, opened a Kickstarter to fund Shenmue 3 back in July of 2015. After that campaign wrapped up and raised $6.3 million in funding, Suzuki felt that $6 million wouldn’t be enough to fully fund the game. Considering the original Shenmue’s legendary $47 million budget, he had some grounds for this claim. Suzuki re-opened the Kickstarter campaign for what he called a “Slacker Backer” campaign, accepting payments through Paypal.

This move paid off to the tune of almost $850,000. It seems that Suzuki deems the full $7.1 million adequate to finish the project as funding is now officially closed. Deep Silver, the publisher behind the title, seems to think so as well. Recently at Gamescom 2018, Deep Silver announced that Shenmue 3 will be available for PS4 and PC on August 27, 2019.

In the meantime, you can always play the re-releases of Shenmue 1 & 2, available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

I've been a "tech-head" my entire life. After graduating college with a degree in Mathematics, I worked in finance and banking a few years before taking a job as a Systems Analyst for my local school district. I started working with Notebookcheck in October of 2016 and have enjoyed writing news articles and notebook reviews. My areas of interest include the business side of technology, retro gaming, Linux, and innovative gadgets. When I'm not hunched over an electronic device or writing code for a new database, I'm either outside with my family, playing a decade-old video game, or sitting behind a drum set.